Odd story behind this one; I've actually had this since 2011. It was bought from an ebay seller in Hong Kong, and despite this being a £150+ model kit, the guy sent me a second one by mistake. I tried to contact him to return it but he never replied (I'm guessing he didn't speak English), and rather than return it at my own expense with no promise of the fee being refunded, I kept it. I built one of them when it arrived, and my painting skills have improved somewhat since then, so I decided it was time to build the second.

That awkward feeling you get when you haven't seen your window cleaner for a few months, so you look for his business card but can't find it, so you look for him online but the number doesn't work, so you google his name and find a Facebook page, which leads to what is basically a breath-taking amount of racism.

In a bit of a quandry now. On the one hand our windows are pretty filthy. On the other...

So get another window cleaner? At best, you never see the old one again, at worst you tell him that you've decided to switch cleaners and he murders you in your sleep. More likely he looks a bit annoyed and that's it. I mean you *should* confront him about the racism, sure, but I doubt I'd do it in that position. Instead I'd get Monica to do it; she's both equally disgusted by racism and much better at arguing than I am.

Sly Boots wrote:That awkward feeling you get when you haven't seen your window cleaner for a few months, so you look for his business card but can't find it, so you look for him online but the number doesn't work, so you google his name and find a Facebook page, which leads to what is basically a breath-taking amount of racism.

In a bit of a quandry now. On the one hand our windows are pretty filthy. On the other...

You might say your windows are black then.

Sounds like you either need to get Trump and sons back round to do a spot of ethnic cleansing on them or tell them to sling their hook and get someone else you're happy with. I'd go with the 'or' option myself.

Raid wrote:Good luck selling the place with dirty windows. The smell of freshly cooked bread and clean windows, that's what the estate agents all say.

Well, they're not filthy filthy, just could do with a bit of a polish.

As for aromas, it's all about the fresh-brewed coffee now, apparently!

The window-cleaner we've had since we moved in 8 years ago is just a bit doddery (he's had both knees replaced and spent a few extended periods away with illness since he started doing them) and as we've not seen hide nor hair of him since July I was getting a bit concerned mainly that he's all right. Last FB post was December 16 and the number listed for what I think it his business on t'web doesn't seem to work, so concerns haven't really been alleviated.

We've known for some time that his views were a little, um, fruity for our tastes, but as he's an older generation white South African we have kind of viewed it in the same way you do when Del Boy says something insensitive on Only Fools and Horses, a relic from a bygone age. Seeing a few of the FB posts has left a bit of a nasty taste, though.

I don't really buy that whole "Oh well it was a different time" line of defense. Older generation or not, if you're alive today and your views haven't progressed in any way to align with the more tolerant society that we all are a part of then you're a racist piece of shit. You don't get a pass just because things used to be different for you and it was okay to be a racist piece of shit because everybody was back then.

I've never considered "it was a different time" an excuse, just an explanation.

Casual racism caused something of a rift between my dad and I this year. He'd quoted a racist piece of shit on Facebook regarding removal of motorcycle helmets in petrol stations and asking why this didn't apply to people wearing headscarves. I confronted him about this guy, and he took it as an attack on himself.

I find it impossible to ignore this stuff any more, at least online where it doesn't require direct confrontation. It's massively depressing because it's indirectly causing the ruin of this country via Brexit.

Raid wrote:I've never considered "it was a different time" an excuse, just an explanation.

Yes, this.

Perhaps I was a bit ambiguous in what I said, when I said I treated it like something from Only Fools, in effect it's literally that - a throwaway comment that wouldn't be out of place in a 1970s sitcom that makes me feel really uncomfortable and swiftly change the subject. I just don't go on the warpath.

In context, the guy was in his third or fourth year of coming round every month to clean our windows before any of this slipped out, and by then we'd struck up a pretty friendly rapport, he'd bought gifts for both my kids when they were born etc. It was a bit like that episode in Peep Show where Mark makes a friend at the office, and then has a slow, sinking realisation about the person they're friendly with.

In that situation, and bear in mind we're still in the world of 70s sitcoms here, not NF rally rhetoric, what do you do? In our five minutes' of interaction each month we opted to just change the subject if and when anything like that came up (and it didn't always).

It's a similar deal with my father-in-law. At family gatherings he's quote often dropping the sort of bomb that if it was my parents - and sometimes it has been - I would challenge, but surrounded by his family, what do you do? I bite my tongue and make myself scarce.

Yeah, there's gotta be ways of seeing it in varying degrees. My dad's old-fashioned and isn't a fan of immigration, but he isn't a racist piece of shit. He's not out there threatening people, or part of any racist group/society, etc.

There has to be a moderate response, in context with how mild or severe the views of the person in question are.